YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A PROFESSIONAL TO ENTER!If you ARE, awesome. But it's not a deal killer if you aren't.I'd LOVE to help you "just get better pictures of the kids"!

To Enter:

comment with your name (if there's no link back to your name, I need an email so I can contact you in the event that you win the consultation).

tell your friends via twitter, facebook, blog post and all the etcs because guess what!? I just decided (yes, just this second) that if the winner was referred here by a friend, I'll give that person a free consultation as well! woot woot woot!

winner will be chosen at random (thank you random.org), Friday at 4pm Hawaii time.

Now, I am saying "see you later alligator" to this old blogand won't be back until content is built and the new blog is ready to launch!

12 August, 2010

Post edited to include: Please don't wrongly assume that this post is directed at my children's school, Laie Elementary. I LOVE Laie Elementary and the wonderful teachers there. This post was triggered by a general observation of the state of the public education system as a whole, watching too much news while on the mainland and many fascinating discussions with friends (who are MUCH smarter than I. . . than me. . . than I. . . see what I mean?).

If you don't want to read through my whole train-of-thought rant,I'd still love your opinion on THIS:

How do you make sure your kidsget the best they can from public education?

______________________

I just want my kids to feel smart(THEY ARE)

I just want my kids to develop their own unique creativity(IT AMAZES ME!)

I just want my kids to think independently(THEY'RE SMARTER, AND MORE INNOVATIVE, THAN ME . . .TIMES 47 BILLION)

I just want my kids to be confident in who they are inhernetly(THEY'RE COOLER THAN ANYONE ELSE I KNOW)

Is that too much to ask??

apparently so.. . . .A lot of my problems with public schoolare chalked up as being "just a normal part of growing up."

give.me.a.break.

since when is a 2nd grader's ability to write a word (neatly)20 times more indicative of his ability to spell itthan just repeating it correctly a few times orally?

How does that activity nurture a true and lasting love of learning?(particularly when the kid is clearly maxed out and miserable . . .)

how does forcing a kindergartner to color PERFECTLY within the linessay anything about his intellect?

Particularly if the kindergartner HATES coloring.

and don't you dare go on and on about learning fine motor skills.

there are clearly other ways to encourage proper fine motor developmentthat won't SQUASH the child's eventual love of writing.

How does holding a kid back from recessbecause she didn't finish her math as quickly as her peers . . .do ANYTHING constructive for ANYONE?!

I could go on.and on.and on.and on.

. . . .

just because WE grew up in a broken system,that doesn't make it normal.

what I see(now that I'm looking with my own two eyesand not through the bottle thick glasses I wore through my public education k-12)is NOT anywhere in sight of "normal."

and at the very least. . . it sure doesn't have to be.

I'm not here to bag on government.or teachers.or administrators.or parents.

except that I am in fact going to bag on everyone,just a little.

because for crying out loud,WE.ARE.BROKEN.

and it's all our fault (collectively).

government, I don't know what to say to you.though if I did, it might sound something like "lay off!" . . . ???

you act like because you give us money,you get to control us. . .

wasn't it our own money to begin with?!

teachers, where has your passion gone?!(because I know you didn't get into this for the money)

and don't blame it on government restrictions,or lack of funding.

Last I checked, passion came from WITHIN(the majority portion of which is choice based, trust me)and is born from the love and respect you havefor the children who needyou(even if you secretly want to hit them upside the head,and again, trust me, I know a lot of them could probably use it).

Administrators. . .I've been told that you are the children's advocates.

act like it.

cut our teachers (and parents) some slack and let themdo the job (that I truly believe many of them were BORN to do)the way it needs to be done.(they way only THEY can do it, because they're amazing!)

Parents,get in there.

even if your kid's teacher looks at you like "one of those" parents.

stop caring about that and get.in.there.

parents think they have no control over the education system,yes.we.do!

and let's prove it to them.

because this is so completely far from normal.. . . .

I sincerely want to know what you thinkand how you make it work for your family(or plan to when you're an old lady like me with kids in big kid school).

talk to me.

please note: I scored AMAZING parents who encouraged and REQUIRED my brother and I to be self directed learners. . . they taught us to think for ourselves. PRAISE YOU MOM. I also scored some AMAZING teachers (Mrs Gega, Mrs Shire, Mrs Dominguez, that choir teacher in middle school who's name I can't remember, Mrs Woolsey and a million more) and so have my kids (all the pre k teachers, Mrs K, Ms Butterworth). THANK YOU HEAVEN ABOVE!

27 July, 2010

"How you go'n stand it. . . . I mean goin' home every night and she ain't there."

"Do I got a choice, Will Tweedy? I got to stand it, ain't I? Livin' is like pourin' water out of a tumbler into a dang Coca-Cola bottle. If'n you're scared you can't do it, you can't. If'n you say to yourself, 'By dang, I can do it!' then by dang, you won't slosh a drop . . . . I wouldn't ask the Lord to steady my hand for a thing like pourin' water into a Coca-Cola bottle. But I'll be askin' Him for help on this."

-Cold Sassy Tree

Olive Ann Burns

PS. Hopefully I'll get my act together and get the final changes to the designer for the new blog soon! Holding off on "real" blogging until after my face lift. :) Hang in there friends! SOOOOOO close!

Subscribe

Sounds of Pertussis

You will periodically see me blog about The Sounds of Pertussis campaign. I am an unpaid spokesperson and am only compensated travel expenses where applicable for my involvement with this important cause. Join our fight against this deadly disease by clicking the image above!!